Imperial Army (Hektor Heresy)

This page details people, events, and organisations from the /tg/ Heresy, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. See the /tg/ Heresy Timeline and Galaxy pages for more information on the Alternate Universe.

The Imperial Army was a large naval, air and ground force in the service of the Imperium of Mankind from the period of the Great Crusade until it was disbanded in the Imperial Reformation.

History

The Imperial grew out of the ordinary human soldiers who had fought for the Emperor during the Unification Wars. Although the Legiones Astartes were seen as the primary means for unifying the Galaxy, it was quickly apparent that additional manpower would be needed to garrison newly-won worlds. As the conquering Legions pushed on, new forces were levied or tithed from complaint worlds to provide new Imperial Army forces. Later in the Crusade, the Imperial Army would be deployed as counter-insurgency forces, then alongside crusading Space Marines, and eventually in independent front-line commands. Regardless, the Imperial Army was considered an auxiliary force - hence their High Gothic name, the Imperialis Auxilia - and ultimately answered to Space Marine commanders. Many armymen saw themselves as members of their Legion first and the Imperium second.

The personal, almost feudal organisation of the Great Crusade proved disastrous in the Hektor Heresy. Imperial Army commanders typically aligned themselves with the Legions to whom they had been subordinate, immediately providing the Traitors with a powerful auxiliary force. Others went rogue in the anarchic conditions of the civil war, seizing control of planets or whole sub-sectors for themselves. These renegades would have to be subdued in the Scouring, costing an already ravaged Imperium even more lives and resources.

To prevent such a catastrophe ever happening again, the Imperial Reformation broke up Imperial Army. Land forces were reconstituted as the Imperial Guard, while a separate Imperial Navy would be responsible for the Imperium's warships. Air assets were largely put at the disposal of the Imperial Navy, although the Imperial Guard retained VTOL and VSTOL vehicles for use in planetary campaigns. This division sought to guarantee that no rebel officer would have both land forces and shipping at his disposal.

Notable Imperial Army Units

The Ardito Highwatch

Hailing from a world of ravines and soaring peaks, the Ardito are born mountaineers and light infantrymen. The thin air of their homeworld selects only the hardiest specimens to survive to adulthood.

The Auron Infantries

The "Aurries" are a light infantry force founded in late M30 on the planet Auron. They are famous for their wisecracking and survival skills.

The Carlisian Shock Troops

Carlisar is a system on the edge of Segmentum Solar near the Eye of Terror. Its primary planet of Carlisar IV is a heavily industrialised planet just short of hive world status. Carlisar has a proud military tradition born from many centuries of bloody upheaval within the system itself and eventually from marauding orks that have constantly plagued the system since their arrival.

Eager to prove themselves in the crucible of war after accepting Imperial pacification with open arms, Carlisar raised and sent out as many regiments as it could muster for the Imperial Army. Carlisian army regiments focus on a solid core of footslogging and mechanised infantry supported by some tanks, and a very large number of aircraft. Veterans of the infantry companies are promoted to the drop companies, who specialise in airborne tactical insertion to the most dangerous battlefield areas. Carlisar drop troopers are deployed into the battlefield where they can have the most impact, reinforcing crumbling fronts and hitting vulnerable enemy positions. Due to the nature of warfare these drop companies have high attrition rates. This is seen as a point of pride among the soldiers, and promotion to the drop companies is a great honor. The regiments tend to boast an array of highly skilled pilots as well, given the difficulty of performing flybys for troop deployment and bombing runs where the fighting tends to be thickest. The result of their tactical doctrine is a solid land based fighting force that is highly adaptable due to rapid air deployment and supplemented by gunship support and bombings. Carlisar soldiers tend to be boisterous and outgoing in their relations with other Imperial Army units, and have a dogged determination and disdain for fear that make them truly fierce combatants. Many a foe has fallen to the onslaught of their shining blue battle tanks, disciplined regimented infantry, and coordinated drop strikes.

Chelob Hammerers

Following the conquest of the Core Worlds Confederation by the Imperium, sturdy heavy infantry regiments, backed up by artillery and massive vehicles, were raised from the defeated worlds.

Ciban Chasseurs

The Fifth Legion's homeworld of Ciban IV has raised many regiments for the Imperium every year since its Pacification. The patronage of the Primarch Gaspard Lumey led to these soldiers being among the best-equipped in the Imperial Army. Typically deployed as mechanized troops, Ciban Chasseurs were present for almost all of the Fifth's battles until the Legion was broken up in the Imperial Reformation.

The Dolsene Rifles

Many regiments of the Imperial Army (and its successor, the Imperial Guard) claim to be the best of the best. Inevitably such discussions involve a comparison with the Dolsene Rifles, natives of a distant world besieged by Xenos. Although they rarely depart their native soil, the Rifles have left a legacy of success across the galaxy.

Elsinor Favored Sons

Drawn from the planetary nobility, the Favored Sons are elite infantry specializing in stealth missions.

Exiran Armored Mercenaries

So named for the perponderance of tanks and other armored equipment in their divisions, the Exirans are among the most widespread of Imperial Guard units, with Princes fighting on almost every side of every conflict. Hailing from the eponymous sector, Exiran units feature some of the best individual fighting forces in the Imperium. Exirus is home to countless factories spanning entire continents, and based on a tradition of ritualized warfare between local nobles Exiran units have developed a stong tradition of integrated armor/infantry/artillery operations. While the various Princes have since embraced naval and space combat as well, the wargame traditions have often time blinded them to wider strategic considerations.

If left to their own devices an Exiran brigade may quickly run out of fuel, run out of food, run out of ammo in protracted battles. This is not indicative of any sort of wastefulness on the part of Exirus soldiers but a testament to the Kriegspiel traditions of their commanding officers, when a single battle might have dictated the fate of an entire nation. Exiran infantry may require greater resupply but they are well trained professional soldiers rather than the mass conscripts of other parts of the Imperium. Squads train with nearly every weapon available to them. A commanding officer couldn't ask for a better fighting force, but Imperial Commissars often butt heads with them. As such, one will often find Princes of Exirus leading a brigade from the front in the Commissar's stead.

The Glasgan Fatalis

The Glasgan Fatalis Regiment is a very fatalistic army, with death regarded as common and superfluous. Their rate of maturity is artificially accelerated, so that they live, get married, have children, etc. all before the age of 15. From then on until death they fight in the regiment, with a minimal fear of death as their life is largely over. The few survivors that do make it return as elders, and teach the next few generations before dying of old age.

Haeltoth Starguard

The Starguard are few but better-known than many more numerous formations. If their doctrine and tactical prowess does not astound, their sleek powered armour and advanced energy weaponry always leaves an impression.

Jeolian Siege/Tunnel Army

Raised from the mountainous bastion world of Jeolia, the Jeolian Tunnel/Siege army originate form a planet constantly under attack from orks inhabiting the mines and warrens of the plant. The planet is a hive world with cities burrowed into the very mountains and a member of the PDF will learn to lay siege to the settlements and fortresses of the orks.

The most skilled of the PDF will then be drawn into the Siege/Tunnel Corps who will be deployed to the harshest of underground and siege warzones. They are known for their use of modified vehicles, war gear and equipment. The Siege/Tunnel Corps are divided into 15 corps of soldiers. 12 standard corps of standard line troops including the veteran first division and 2 and 3rd engineer corps, as well as the 13 reserve and 14 and 15th supply corps.

The Kondrus Aeroguard

The Kondrus Aeroguard are a nimble airmobile force, known as much for their masks and gypsy ways as their tactical prowess.

The Markian Corps

Bound in servitude to the Fifth Legion is the Markian Corps, the united military forces of the Markian Pact. The regiments of Karmia, Atashia, Kouralia, Lemartia, and Thenar are insignificant individually; what the Markian regiments derive their power from is combined arms, unit cohesion, and specialist equipment, utilizing versatility to attain victory.

The Motroit Enforcers

Motroit, one of the Imperium's great centres of cybernetics, put forward a unique solution to the Emperor's demand for tithed troops. Rather than conscript or ask for volunteers, the Enforcers take those whose bodies have been badly damaged in accidents or by disease and rebuild them into cyber-soldiers.

The Emperor's Own Narakan Corps - "Scumdogs"

Reviled as savages and blackguards throughout the Imperial Army the Narakan Corps, or "Scumdogs" as they are known informally, are nevertheless a brutally effective fighting force. The Narakans are defined by their homeworld of Naraka, a brutal deathworld hiding under the decaying façade of a hiveworld, and their claim of subjugation by the Emperor himself. Naraka was once a glittering global metropolis, but an unknown accident or attack left the world completely inhospitable. The worlds of the empire sent hundreds of thousands of convicted criminals to the world in attempts to repair the damage. Generations would pass and the hive-ganger culture they inherited from their forebearers would never fade among the Narakan peoples, leading to a great deal of friction with more "civilized" segments of the Imperial Army.

Due to their brutal and toxic homeworld, the Narakans possess unnatural physiques. The use of combat stimulants and biological/mechanical physical augmentation is rampant and even ritualized, the decrepit automated factories of Naraka still produce enough to supply the Corps. A few Narakan individuals have become so grotesquely large and powerful they even rival Space Marines in brute strength and hardiness.

The Corps specialize in urban warfare, guerilla warfare, and routing dug in resistance, every soldier having recieved basic training since birth. The Emperor's Own are often called in when other regiments have difficulty removing dug in threats or overcoming toxic environments. They prefer to draw out defenders with rapid strafing attacks to leave them in disarray before a final mass charge. The thunder of dropships and the howling of jetbikes were often the last thing heard by rebellious defenders as the Scumdogs descended upon them.

Skoptsi Redeemers

The Redeemers are a series of regiments hailing from Skoptsi Prime, a planet brought into the Imperial fold late in the Great Crusade. The regiments are composed entirely of a secretive religious sect from that world, whose leader prophesied that those who joined the Crusade would eventually have their long-awaited hopes and dreams fulfilled in 'the divine realm'. Fanatics all, the Redeemers charge the enemy, heedless of the cost in lives that result from such tactics.

Vaartes Fated

The regiments of the planet Vaartes are vat-grown and tithed to the Imperium. Outside of the society which created them, the Vaartesian troopers often find themselves questioning their programming and choosing to shift that 'built-in' loyalty to a chosen cause-- the Imperial Army, the Emperor, or the Imperial Creed. Mechanized infantry who are fanatical and loyal to a fault, the 'Fated' nevertheless gain the respect of those allies they fight alongside.

The Imperial Regiments of Gethsemane

The Regiments of Gethsemane are divided into two large fighting forces: The 1st through 166th "Noble Guard," who were a large Mechanised force and pledged fealty to the Emperor and the 167th and onwards "Gethsemane Rifles," who were light infantry units that sided with Hektor during the Heresy.

Vulpis Canem

The Vulpis Canem are an all-purpose fighting force armed with among the best weapons and armor given to the Imperial Army. Their soldiery are raised from birth to fight in any terrain, using any tactics, and defeat all xenos they encounter.

Gallery

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  Propaganda poster issued to the Motroit Enforcers. These sinister images were intended to help cow newly-subdued worlds without the need for bloodshed.

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  Auron Infantry recruiting poster

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  Auron Infantry recruiting poster, produced after the Imperium's narrow victory at Destino

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  Artist's impression of the Death World Auron

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  One of the Haeltoth stations, home to the Starguard.

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  A scene from the Aeroguard's ruined homeworld, Kondrus.

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  Artist's impression of Ciban IV, home to the Chasseurs.

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  Carlisian Shock Troops gunship in close-up

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  A super-heavy vehicle used by the Chelob Hammerers

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  Dolsene Rifles rover

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  A sniper from the 88th Aeroguard. Note the intimidating Mortis-pattern Targeter-Surveyor Rebreather underneath the hood of the soldier's camo-cloak.

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  Kondrus Aeroguardsman on sentry duty

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  Sketch of an Exiran infantryman

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  Sketch of a soldier from the 5th Ciban Chasseurs, "The flower of Orléans".

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  Sketch of soldiers of the Ardito Highwatch

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  Sargent Gond yr Akna of the "Scumdogs"

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  Haeltoth Starguard Elma Wilkins, the Ace of Mattogolvo

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  Corporal Stewie Parker, Carlisian Shock Troops

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  Troopers from the Fischetti Numeri